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  • How good are Siri and Alexa?

    Most people that use speech recognition services either love them or hate them - there tends to be no middle ground. When users are not given the option - for example many banks will not let you speak to a human unless you have already spent 20 minutes getting nowhere with their voice assistant - then users are less tolerant. But even for those using a speech assistant by choice - for example Alexa or Siri - there often is a similar spread of tolerance. But Siri and Alexa are just two high-profile systems that deploy automatic speech recognition (ASR) in home automation. There are many more ASR applications and Cloud services that are used by other service providers. The problem with ASR is there is rarely any measurement available for performance - ie how much you say does it correctly recognise…

  • UCL Robotics '23

    On the 17th February the UCL Institute of Robotics held the first in person UCL Robotics conference after being previously an online only event. Attendees came from various backgrounds and interests to meet at the main campus of UCL in central London, a quarter of attendees from industry. With talks being categorised into four main areas; Foundational Technologies in A.I. & ML, Autonomous Navigation & Path Planning, Communications, Computer Vision, Control and Sensing, Localization & Mapping, VR/AR Foundational Technologies in Bio-inspired Robots, Haptics Human-Robot Interaction, Legged Robotics, Materials, Mechanism Design, Multi-Robot Systems, Soft Robotics Applications of Robotics in Healthcare and Beyond (e.g. diagnosis, surgery, rehabilitation) Industrial Applications of Robotics…

  • Why is the use of AI desirable, and perhaps inevitable?

    Long a staple of science fiction novels and movies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a burgeoning feature of the technology we use in our lives. Everything from cars to cameras either use it already or will use it in the near future. This factor can overshadow one of AI’s real strengths, mining large volumes of data for insights into large scale projects, programmes and problems. Last summer Dr Alec Banks and Rob Ashmore had a short discussion on the key role AI will play in this area in safety and mission critical systems, along with some key anticipated challenges. The event was to support a paper from the IET’s AI in Functional Safety Working Group : Alec: Everyone seems to be pushing to adopt AI. Why is it so desirable and perhaps even inevitable for programmes like the FCAS…

  • Can you help Foothold support struggling engineers through the last weeks of winter?

    So far this winter, Foothold have provided almost 400 grants to engineers facing hardship. But there’s still more we can do to support the engineering community at this challenging time – and we need your help. Like us, you'll know that winter can be a really difficult time for people, emotionally, physically and financially. And whilst Spring is fast approaching, there are some people in our community who are still struggling to cope. And the cost of living crisis is making this worse. Simply keeping warm and putting food on the table has become a financial and mental burden for many. That’s why you may have noticed we launched our Winter Support Fund appeal back in December, to raise vital funds for engineers and their families who are really struggling right now. "My wife was…

  • The Wiring Matters 2023 Annual is now available

    We are happy to bring you the Wiring Matters 2023 Annual , collecting popular articles from our 2022 output. 2022 was a big year for the IET and the Technical Regulations team with the publication of the long-anticipated BS 7671:2018+A2:2022. Amendment 2 bought with it developments in many areas of standardization, and we were happy to feature articles that delved into these. The 2023 annual includes... An in-depth look from Graham Kenyon at advice found in IET Guidance Note 3 ; Detailed analysis of changes in Chapter 42 of BS 7671:2018+A2:2022 from IET Senior Engineer Leon Markwell; One article from each of our series, Back to the Forum and Mythbusters ; IET Senior Engineer Michael Peace looks at the changes to RCD testing introduced in Amendment 2; and more! If you want…

  • It’s Personal: Apollo Protocol – The Human Capital Hack

    Here’s a summary of some of the outcomes of our fourth Apollo Protocol Hack and information about what comes next. We’re at the end of our 4-month, 8-event marathon and, to be honest, a bit tired! The team has been overwhelmed by the volume of interest from across the built environment, manufacturing and tech sectors in our Apollo Forum hacks. It's time to take stock, review the huge amount of learning and start the next stage of our journey. But first, let’s look back on the Human Capital Hack and what we learned. Why have we been hosting Hack Events? Over the last four months the Apollo Protocol have hosted eight in person and online Hack events exploring four different themes relating to cross sectoral digital twins and information management. These Hacks formally launched the Apollo…

  • What are the implications of the Retained EU Law for engineers?

    It is safe to say, the UK Government’s Retained EU Law Bill (REUL) has provoked strong responses that largely stay off the fence. The Bill, making its way through the parliamentary process as we speak, seeks to take laws and regulations inherited from the EU off the statute books. If it passes on schedule, some 4,000 laws could simply be ‘sunsetted’ on December 31 st 2023, many without undergoing technical scrutiny by experts. When I asked for the views of IET members in a recent discussion post: What are the implications of the Retained EU law (REUL) on the engineering and technology sector , they didn’t hold back. A few were unconcerned about changes, saying they would adapt to them. However most respondents appear concerned about what laws will face the chop, what will replace them…

  • A Glasgow All-Electric House

    by Anne Locker In 1923, IEE member Stanley Parker Smith was planning a new house in Glasgow, designed for “all-electric working” with no coal or gas. The design, construction and electrical installation of the house is described in a paper to the Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, given in 1925. It’s a fascinating account of how an engineer faced technical, economic and social challenges to show that domestic electricity was the future. His efforts were not met with universal enthusiasm. His professional colleagues thought that domestic electricity was too expensive, and that coal fires were essential for comfortable homes (and burning rubbish). “the carrying out of such an unpopular idea must be largely attributed to the obstinacy of one who thought that the time…

  • The UK Government Addresses The IET Report on AI and Ageing in Parliament

    Data scientists across the globe are taking advantage of the latest AI techniques and advances in genetics to create novel solutions to the health challenges of ageing populations. A report on AI & Ageing by the Institution of Engineering and Technology highlights the ways in which AI is being used to improve the ageing process. It calls on the government to take advantage of this opportunity to make the UK a world leader in AI health technology. It turns out, in October and November, Mr Martyn Day - Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Health and Social Care) and member of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, tabled parliamentary questions to government on behalf of the IET. Below you will find the responses to each of the questions: Question 1: “To ask the Secretary of State for Health and…

  • Wireless 6G networks for communication And sensing

    Professor Christos Masouros gave a great talk on the development of 6G wireless networks and how they provide an opportunity for combining communication and RADAR via Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC). The talk, hosted at the IET's Savoy Place venue by the IET London Local Network, was brilliantly pitched for a basic audience member like myself, while also including the sort of maths that would excite the true enthusiast. A brief introduction to the history of radio communication and RADAR and lack of feedback between them led onto a more detailed intro to mobile communication and some of the problems with RADAR that have been seen by the aerospace industry due to the introduction of 5G ( Aerospace 5G ). The need for improvements in sensing, using the example of autonomous vehicles…

  • How would you guide the younger generation into a career in clean energy?

    Having worked in various energy fields my whole career I have been thinking about the workforce of the future needed to deliver net zero. With the Green Jobs Taskforce that was launched in 2020 and the recent Chris Skidmore Net Zero report reiterating the need for support in the development of “green skills” there is acknowledgement of what is required but there doesn’t yet seem to be clarity as to how we will get there. I know there are so many challenges but also opportunities in the energy transition journey with emerging essential fields such as hydrogen, energy storage, and carbon capture to name a few and although major advances have been made, there is much still left to do to drive real change but where do we get the workforce from to do this and how do we make sure that it consists…

  • How Artificial Intelligence Can Help with Chronic Disease Management

    By 2035, it is expected that two-thirds of UK adults over the age of 65 will have more than one health problem. This is called "multi-morbidity." Seventeen percent of people would have four or more illnesses, which is twice as many as in 2015. One-third of these people would have a mental illness, such as dementia or depression. Life expectancy has gone up by about three years for both men and women. This means that people will spend more time with more than one illness. The problem is there are too many people and not enough doctors. Other industries solve this problem by using structured "algorithms" to make product development more scalable, efficient, and consistent in quality. Can the same thing be done in healthcare to make it more algorithmic, scalable, and cost-effective while improving…

  • Designing AI-Powered Elder Care Products: Best Practices and Considerations

    by Nury Moreira Introduction As the global population ages, the need for innovative solutions to support the health and well-being of older adults becomes increasingly important. The World Health Organisation says the number of people aged 60 and older is expected to double ( to 2.1 billion) by 2050, a demographic shift with significant implications for healthcare systems, families, and communities. One of the key challenges this ageing population will face is maintaining independence and autonomy, especially when it comes to managing their own health and well-being. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to play a significant role in addressing this challenge, with the development of AI-powered elder care products to assist with a wide range of tasks; from fall detection…

  • Trusted Data is Key: Apollo Protocol – The Circularity Hack

    Here’s a summary of some of the outcomes of our third Apollo Protocol Hack and information about how you can join the next one. We’re three hacks in, three themes explored. What strikes me most about attending and participating in these interactive events is how much we need to learn from each other. When we fleshed out each theme in the Apollo Protocol white paper last year, we knew that there were opportunities for learning, but we’ve learned so much more about the value of cross-sector understanding of the major challenges facing manufacturing and the built environment today. By bringing together professionals with a keen interest in a theme, the practitioners working on the coal face and tech specialists who understand the value of data, we benefit from a deep and revelatory understanding…

  • IET Satellite Network - Catching up with Dave Davis

    Last week, Paul Wells (on the left of the photo), Chair of the Satellite Technical Network, Executive committee was pleased to have the opportunity to present Dave Davis, Past Chair, with a memento and certificate to commemorate Dave’s dedication and contribution to the TN over the last few years. The TN are also delighted that Dave is continuing to remain engaged via their Technical Advisory Panel, considering he's also a prominent volunteer with several other areas of the IET and also many external groups and organisations. See here for a recent article on Dave. The TN are looking for volunteers for their Executive team, so if you are interested, please contact Deborah-Claire McKenzie their Community Manager for more details.

  • “Where clients call, and fees abound … Victoria Street!”

    The chronicle of a Consulting Engineer’s practice in post-war London, and of its founder, Charles MacKechnie Jarvis Guest blog by Jonathan MacKechnie Jarvis My late father was an inveterate hoarder, who seldom discarded anything of possible future interest. He died in 2009 at the age of 101, leaving a huge legacy of books and papers. Among these was a black tin chest crammed full of the key records of the consulting engineering practice which he founded in 1949. The practice flourished during the busy post-war decades, for many years in a succession of offices along Victoria Street: a pre-computer world long since vanished. Much important and sensitive documentation of the practice was in the form of large quarto hardback notebooks, well-thumbed and quite neatly maintained, in my father…

  • SESAME - 2023 events Programme

    The SESAME (South East Scotland Afternoon Meetings and Events) section is part of the IET's South East Scotland Network . As our name suggests we arrange events within the South East of Scotland with a focus on being both a social and technical group. All our events and other activities are multi-disciplinary, addressing a wide range of current engineering and technology topics; of interest to both specialist and generalist alike. Our talks, by an invited speaker, are held at Edinburgh Napier University Craiglockhart Campus with the presentation followed by afternoon tea and discussion with the speaker. They are open to the public and are free. Registration is not necessary but is helpful for us to manage the event. Our technical visits are generally within an hour’s drive of Edinburgh…

  • Apollo Protocol: The Human Capital Hack - join us to investigate digital skills in manufacturing and the built environment

    We've now reached the final of four hack events organised by the Apollo Protocol for manufacturing, built environment and tech professionals to explore the four key themes outlined in our White Paper, The Apollo Protocol: Unifying Digital Twins Across Sectors. This one is about digital skills and how we manage human capital. We are inviting business leaders from manufacturing and the built environment, including engineers to join us to answer these questions: How can you become better informed about digital requirements for the future? How can you get your staff educated to enable them to participate in a future digitised company? How are you going to get in people with digital skills to help your company digitise? What digital skills will you need? A re you concerned about…

  • Correct The Internet

    I came across this website today when somebody mentioned it in a comment on a LinkedIn discussion. I thought this was a really interesting initiative and wanted to share it here too. Quoted from the website: "About the Project: This project began with a little girl searching the internet for her own school project. She was looking for the greatest sportswomen in the world, the kind of inspiring women she could look up to. Her searches revealed many of the greatest male athletes in the world and all of their achievements, but very few women. She was then shocked to discover that when she did search for the achievements of the greatest sportswomen, many of them were superior to the men she was being served in her search results. It turns out, Christine Sinclair has scored more goals in international…

  • AI – The Closer You Look, The More Complicated It Is

    “Ask Kirsten about cat croissants, it will make her giggle”, said Dr Rachel Craddock. So, when I spoke to Kirsten McCormick, I did ask her about cat croissants, and she did giggle. “They are wonderful! We noticed them when we were putting together this presentation (next week’s webinar ‘Demystifying Artificial Intelligence ’) actually. We've done the webinar very much jointly, and we spit ball off each other quite a lot. We were searching common myths about AI, discussing how AI can be tricked by things that look very similar. We found loads of pictures, some were of croissants and some were of ginger cats or kittens in the shape of a croissant. And we got very distracted by that.” This illustrates an issue with AI, how to tell one thing from another when they look alike. A photograph…

  • Building A Quantum Computer Using Silicon Chips (IET Central London Network)

    “When a computer can manipulate the state efficiently, it can start doing a lot more” explained John Morton, co-founder, and CTO of Quantum Motion at the January 2023, IET Central London Network evening lecture at IET Savoy Place, hosted by Dr Mathew Davies. He spoke about the journey of quantum computing, including how the Colossus computer first built in Dollis Hill, London, 1943 used vacuum-tubes to control electric current flow in high vacuums between electrodes. He highlighted the journey of ‘Physical Resources per Bit’ - from Mechanical and Vacuum technology that need room-size space, through to Silicon transistors, that became as small as 12mm2. He moved on to talk about the differences between classical computers vs quantum computers in terms of processing speeds from days into seconds…

  • Methodus Geometrica – a real work of art

    With the arts gaining importance in the teaching of STEM subjects (now abbreviated to STEAM) it is prudent to remember that historically visual art worked alongside and complimented many scientific compositions. The teaching of the arts in STEM subjects has the benefit of nurturing creativity when looking at problem-solving. Visual arts can also help with the understanding of complex theories. Beautiful and elaborate illustrations that are integral to the scientific texts have become magnificent works of art in their own right. One such publication in our rare books collection, Methodus Geometrica, combines the theories of geometry, mathematics and cartography with the beauty of pictorial art. Methodus Geometrica is a 16th century early printed, hand coloured treatise on geometry and surveying…

  • Autonomous Vehicles and Robots are not necessarily the Terminator

    We have the opportunity to make autonomous vehicles reflect our ethical best, not our nightmares, says Dr Asaf Degani In the coming years, we will witness the first manifestation of a robot in the public space. This robot, otherwise called ‘an Autonomous Vehicle,’ can be a boon in terms of effectiveness and efficiency – but it can also present a deadly serious quagmire: ‘how should it behave when driving on public roads, how should it relate to peoples wants and desires? What if these wants are conflicted with other people needs, what if it is safety related?’ We can’t say to these robots as we would to people -- “do what you think is virtuous to do”, we have to say precisely what we want it to do, because, frankly, it’s only a robot. We can’t also consult Isaac Asimov’s famous robotic…

  • Medical Information Processing and Security: Techniques and applications - Ebook

    Congratulations to Book Editors, Amit Kumar Singh and Huiyu Zhou and to all the chapter contributors on the publication of this new IET Book: Medical Information Processing and Security: Techniques and applications. About the Book Smart healthcare systems, made up of advanced wearable devices, internet of things (IoT) technologies and mobile internet connectivity, allow significant medical information to be easily and regularly transmitted over public networks. Personal patient information and clinical records are stored on hospitals and healthcare centres and can be accessed remotely by healthcare workers. Due to the widespread increase in the sheer volume of medical data being collected and created all the time, it has never been more important to ensure that such information is collected…

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